The UAE must release all political prisoners before hosting COP28

In this op-ed originally published by Newsweek, our Human Rights Officer Falah Sayed and Emirati activist Jenan AlMarzooqi explain how the UAE is trying to sweep its appalling human rights record under the rug and present itself as "respectful of human rights" by hosting COP28.

Universal Periodic Review: UN Member States urge UAE to protect human rights defenders, prohibit torture and uphold freedom of expression

The UAE received 323 recommendations from UN Member States on various human rights issues during its 4th cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Ahead of the review, MENA Rights Group submitted a shadow report outlining a set of recommendations. In the press release below, we summarise the most crucial recommendations.

Understanding the Arab Interior Ministers' Council and its role in transnational repression

In this analysis, MENA Rights Group finds that the AIMC raises serious human rights issues which must be adequately addressed and remedied.

UN Group questions United Arab Emirates on pattern of enforced disappearances in the country

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) recently published a general allegation on the pattern of enforced disappearances in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following a submission by MENA Rights Group in September 2022.

Algérie: Analyse du projet de loi sur les associations

Sous couvert d’instaurer un régime déclaratif, le projet de loi renforce le statu quo.

UN Secretary-General’s 2022 report highlights reprisals against MENA-based activists, including cases of digital surveillance

On September 29, 2022, the United Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, presented the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on intimidation and reprisals against those cooperating with the UN, its representatives and mechanisms.

MENA Rights Group highlights widespread practice of enforced disappearance in the United Arab Emirates in general allegation to the UN

MENA Rights Group submitted a general allegation to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances highlighting obstacles to the implementation of the 1992 Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance in the United Arab Emirates.

New UAE penal code: increased restrictions on fundamental freedoms

1. Context

In November 2021, Emirati state news agency WAM announced the amendment of 40 federal laws.[i] The announced legal changes included the enactment of a new Federal Crime and Punishment Law (penal code) that came into force in January 2022.[ii] This new code replaced the previous one, which dated from 1987.

Lebanon: More needs to be done to safeguard the rights of refugees, says UN Human Rights Committee

On April 6, 2022, the Human Rights Committee evaluated Lebanon’s efforts to tackle violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence, safeguard the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant domestic workers in light of its last Concluding Observations. Regarding the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in Lebanon, MENA Rights Group and the Global Detention Project published a joint report explaining the ways in which the situation has worsened since 2018. Echoing our concerns, the Committee found that the State of Lebanon failed to implement most recommendations addressing the matter.

Civil and political rights in Iraq under the scrutiny of the Human Rights Committee

On March 7-8, 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee examined Iraq’s sixth periodic report to assess the human rights situation in the country. The Committee monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Iraq ratified in 1971. In their Concluding Observations, adopted following the review of Iraq, the UN experts raised, among others, the issue of enforced disappearance and torture, accountability efforts for ISIL’s crimes, the use of the death penalty and the attacks on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The practice of “rotation”: how Egypt keeps its dissidents in indefinite detention

This analysis discusses the practice of “rotation” which is increasingly used by the Egyptian authorities to circumvent the maximum periods of pre-trial detention, and raises serious due process and fair trial concerns.

Study on the protection of lawyers against undue interference in Lebanon

On December 6, 2021, MENA Rights Group and the Prisoners’ Rights Center of the Tripoli Bar Association provided the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers with information on the exercise of the lawyer's profession. The joint submission will help the Special Rapporteur prepare its forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council (2022) focusing on protection of lawyers from undue interferences lawyers may face in the free and independent exercise of the legal profession.